There will be a press confrence held at 2pm today to "discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life"
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_M10-167_Astrobiology.html (http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_M10-167_Astrobiology.html)
:o :o :o
This is a classic. Jump to 6:00 minutes and enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY4axrzuOAA&feature=related
LOL!
It may be a shocker from a biology point of view but not an extraterrestrial point of view. They found bacteria here on Earth that uses arsenic as a basic building block instead of phosphorus, which is the opposite of what was known about all life on Earth until now. What they find significant about this is that alien life might be... alien.
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/astrobiology_toxic_chemical.html
-Steve
http://rimstar.org http://wsminfo.org
Quote from: Steven Dufresne on December 02, 2010, 02:31:44 PM
It may be a shocker from a biology point of view but not an extraterrestrial point of view. They found bacteria here on Earth that uses arsenic as a basic building block instead of phosphorus, which is the opposite of what was known about all life on Earth until now. What they find significant about this is that alien life might be... alien.
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/astrobiology_toxic_chemical.html
-Steve
http://rimstar.org http://wsminfo.org
True...All living organism use standard DNA coding and use a phosphorus
based dual backbone. These bacteria apparently allow the arsenic element
to replace the phosphorus in their DNA...Shocking from a "biological-rules"
standpoint but not so shocking from a basic chemistry standpoint. The really
supprising part is the replacement of phosphate in ATP adenosinetriphosphate,
I guess to form ATA adenosinetriarsinate part of the energy pathway in cells.
I have a feeling life may have visited this elemental interchange previously in
evolutionary history, at some point. I guess you call could it a hybrid semi-alien.
Evolution doesn't respect the rules though because it doesn't design things
according to rules.
:S:MarkSCoffman
I suppose the rules are,There are no rules !
Only temporary interpretations based on current realities?
Spock told us that 30? years ago!
Geesh !!!
Chet
Totally agree Chet, the artist changes to fit the picture ...
Interesting news but expected. Multi-cell life requires a semiconductor. Of course there might be an exception to this a conductor may work if most of the cell is comprised of super conducting material. DNA could even be 4 string or some other configuration. There may be many more substitutes. Any type of surprise could be waiting for us to find. There are some interesting reads about DNA out there right now. One of them is terahertz waves will reverberate and rip DNA apart. seeing the government would like to use this for transmission they might need to be stopped. They might already be using that part of the spectrum for transmission now. Didn't the red rain in India turn out to be blood that had no DNA? Then later they said they found DNA? They have never left the state of confusion there. How about the disease they reported in Antarctica? Was it a cover up scam or, did they melt some core material in a lab or, did they find a life form that lives and moves in an environment below zero degrees? Where is proof of evolution? In my life time they claim a flower in Africa has become poisonous. Did it or did they find an undocumented subspecies of the plant?